In this excerpt from Radio Free Enterprise you’ll hear from Billy Winburn, Co-Founder of Connect113, a coworking facility in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

Billy and I discuss a wide range of topics that should be of interest to any home-based business owner who’s feeling a little cramped by trying to run a home and a business out of the same building. Not only are your kids, pets and spouse driving you crazy with their constant interruptions, you’re also driving them crazy by working so hard to ignore them.

You probably think you can’t afford something like Connect113, but when you look at what you’re already spending everyday and all the benefits you’ll get, you’ll begin to wonder why you haven’t done something like this sooner.

Give a listen and see what you think.

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I have been posting video programming on the web since long before You Tube was a gleam in Google’s eye. Why? Because I believe that moving pictures and sound represent the very best way to tell a story.

When You Tube came on the scene they changed the entire game by offering free hosting, removing the question of what file format to post or what download speed to optimize for, and offering the ability for anyone to embed a video on their site without either having to produce it, post it or host it.

If you never had to deal with any of those issues in the pre-You Tube era you don’t understand what a revolution and a revelation You Tube was. Today, from a small business marketing standpoint, the wonder of You Tube is how many people watch it.

The video below describes how one inventor has used You Tube to sell over one million units of his tongue brush. That’s right; tongue brush.

If You Tube can help him sell a million tongue brushes, what might it do for you? Give me a call. I have some ideas for you.

Every June, Apple holds their World Wide Developers’ Conference in San Francisco. In years past the focus was entirely on their Macintosh personal computer line, the Mac operating system and software being developed for it.

In more recent years the focus has been almost entirely on the iPhone and the apps being developed for it. This year both platforms were featured, as was an interesting melding of the two.

As a long-time Apple customer (1985) and follower of all things related to online marketing and commerce for small business owners, I watched the video of the WWDC Keynote Address with great interest and came away much more impressed than many members of the tech press seem to be.

Unlike many other observers, I believe that this year’s WWDC represents a watershed moment in online interaction and marketing that will impact small business for many years to come.

The primary complaint most mainstream tech reporters have expressed regarding the varied announcements at this year’s WWDC is that none of the “innovations” represented anything new. They were all ideas that had been around for years. Ideas like cloud storage of data, syncing mobile phones over the air, an online PC software marketplace and so forth.

As outlined in the article / interview, Blippar faces the usual challenge of widespread adoption that any new technology must overcome. In their case, part of that challenge includes persuading large numbers of people to download the requisite app to their phone.

But there are a couple of other significant hurdles that I foresee. For example, while QR Codes are ugly, their presence on a print piece or elsewhere is immediately obvious. How does the consumer know they are seeing an ad that is Blippar-enhanced and is thus signaled that he/she should pull out their smart phone for an enhanced experience?

Also, the applications shown in the demo video will require large budgets and high talent levels to pull off. One thing I like about QR Codes is that they just present simple data or direct the viewer to a landing page which can be easily and/or inexpensively produced, making them more applicable to small and medium-sized businesses of the kind that I support.

The video below is an interview with Cory Doctorow, a successful science fiction writer and popular blogger, in which he shares what he believes is the single most important factor in writing a good blog post – write like a wire reporter. Cory explains very clearly what that means shortly into the video.

At the end of the video he also uses the expression “it’s the attention economy stupid” and recommends that you treat your readers’ attention with respect and not try to fool them into thinking your article is something it is not.

It’s okay if they surf away this time if they’re not interested in this topic. Just let them know very quickly whether this article is right for them and they’ll respect your consideration next time.

I’ve just returned from an interesting short seminar entitled Optimizing Your Local Online Presence presented by some local Patch.com reps at Connect113 in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

I am familiar with local Internet marketing techniques but was only tangentially aware of Patch.com which is kind of like a combination of an old-fashioned local newspaper with a new-fangled online community and business directory.

I’m not going to give a long treatise on the vagaries of Patch.com. Instead I encourage you to do five things:

Spend some time browsing the web site to get a feel for what it’s all about

Become a member of your local Patch in your company’s name

Create or Claim and Optimize your company’s listing on Patch

Subscribe to their daily newsletter

Post comments and reviews in your company’s name

I don’t think your Patch.com listing will be as important or beneficial as say your Google Places listing. But I am convinced that this is a critical local online community that you need to be an active part of.

Over the course of my life and career, I have been witness to a number of technological revolutions. Based on my experience, Social Media cannot be ignored by any business as a critical marketing and brand communication channel. It is here to stay. Until the next thing comes along.

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The Customer Factory provides marketing training, classes, seminars, workshops, courses and classes to small business owners in the United States, Canada, Central America,South America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. We offer online marketing training, live marketing training and small business marketing consulting.